Recent Read

Don't Kiss the Bride by Carian Cole

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Carian’s books to the point of almost obsession. The only one I haven’t read is No Tomorrow but all the others I’ve read at least once a year, sometimes more. So it was an absolute given I would read her latest book, Don’t Kiss the Bride. I think I can safely say she’s written another book I’ll be reading multiple times. This is an age gap romance and I often feel a bit of trepidation reading one with that trope, unless the heroine is older than the hero and yep, I know that’s kind of a double standard but I can live with it *grin*

Skylar is our heroine and pretty much from the beginning our hearts break for her. She has a wretched home life; she deals with something I’ve not read about before and she is bullied at school. She is unique and of course if someone doesn’t conform, they can really pay a price. She also has a number of physiological issues, brought on by her upbringing.
There is a house undergoing renovations near the school and Jude (Lucky) Lucketti is the boss in charge of the reno’s. He notices Skylar, not in a creepy way at all, but because she stands out in a crowd. He observes from a distance how she is being treated and it bothers him. One day he’s working in the rain and he sees her fall. He goes to help her out and that’s how they begin talking to each other. He’s in his early 30’s and he’s completely aware of their age difference but they become friends after a fashion. She slowly begins to open up about her problems and because he is a good and caring guy he wants to help her. The plan he comes up with is rather unorthodox but he suggests they enter into a marriage of convenience. One of reasons is she has lots of health issues and no money to pay for things. If they are married, he could put her on his plan.

She’s quite reluctant at first. She doesn’t want to cramp his style since her current living situation is untenable which means she will be moving in with him, but Lucky is such an incredible hero, that isn’t even a concern.
They start out as strictly friends but slowly an attraction grows between them and things get trickier. Neither want to start anything as it’s only a marriage of convenience until Sklylar is older but the attraction can’t be denied.

This book is SO swoonworthy. Skylar is mature beyond her years and because they started out as friends first and both are aware of the age difference, they think things through before acting on anything.
I only read this book a couple of weeks ago but writing up this review has me wanting to read this book again, something that happens with all her books. This book gets an unqualified 5+ stars. All her books do.

**Note**

I enjoyed this book so much that even though I only read it a short while ago, it called me to read it again.  I'm not surprised as her books are always calling my name

'til later


View all my reviews